The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)(R) tells us that every project is governed by the "Triple Constraints" of Scope, Cost and Time, and that these three must be balanced with each other to achieve project success. But our project Sponsor either doesn't know about the Triple Constraints, or doesn't care. He or she gives us the mandate, and we are stuck with it!
Or are we?
Any manager in any organization (profit-making, non-profit, government, or whatever) has a serious responsibility to get as much work done as possible, as quickly as possible, for the lowest cost possible. A manager who settles for anything less is shirking his or her fiduciary responsibility to the organization.
More often that not, the manager does not have a good way to estimate how much time and money a project should take. Even if this person has past experience with this sort of project, it is unlikely that he or she has the time to analyze it and consider all of its ramifications. So, when it comes to setting the constraints for the project, a manager who is serious about his or her fiduciary responsibilities will push you just as hard as he or she thinks you can be pushed, then will push you just a little bit more.
The unreasonable demands come from the fact that the project Sponsor doesn't know what the project will require, so he or she makes a best guess, then pushes beyond it to ensure that the project time and money are well-spent.
But if we object, we are often told to stop whining and get to work. We can tell the sponsor that we don't think the project can be completed with the given resources, but we are likely to be told that we can and we will! It is our word against the sponsor's word. And with the vast difference in positional authority, our hands are tied.
While it is true that we do not have the positional authority to argue with management, we do have something that will level the playing field: hard data and useful information. Our sponsor doesn't want to do the wrong thing. But he or she probably lacks the information that is necessary to make the right decision. And we have that information!
We can level the field and prepare to have a meaningful negotiation with our project Sponsor by following a simple three-step process:
1) List the project activities. Follow disciplined planning procedures to identify all of the things that must happen on the project in order to make it successful. Be careful to think through all of the work that must happen, using past projects as a guide to be sure you don't miss anything.
2) Research past projects. Understand the time and resources that those activities have normally required for success on past projects. (Or at least determine which resource levels were insufficient on past projects and use them to estimate what would have been needed.)
3) Produce three solid defensible plans. With the information from numbers 1 & 2, you can now produce three plans. Why three plans? The first plan will define exactly what the project as defined should actually cost (in time and money). If you really want all of this work done, then this is what it will cost! The other two plans suggest alternatives that could come closer to meeting the constraints: perhaps one that has a smaller scope and meets the cost and schedule constraints, and another that meets the schedule and scope by increasing costs.
Armed with all of this information, we are prepared to actually negotiate with management!
We wish!
Most managers have had little experience with receiving well-prepared and defensible plans, so you are likely to be met with a barrage of questions about your plans and the data on which they are based. Don't be discouraged by such a reception. It is any manager's responsibility to not just trust what they are told, but to ensure that it is real, and is based on real data. It make take some time for your sponsor to convince him- or herself that that your plans and your data are based in reality. And depending on how positive or negative your relationship has been in the past; it may take a project or two before your sponsor begins to believe you!
But when your sponsor begins to believe in your data, you are finally in the position to negotiate project constraints that are workable and realistic. What the project ends up looking like is up to your sponsor. He or she may make choices that you disagree with. But as long as you provided him or her with the information that was necessary to make good rational decisions, you have done your part to ensure a successful project.
(R) "Project Management Body of Knowledge" and "PMBOK" are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute.